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Technological Literacy and ethical issues,Payam Maleki
Technology Literacy is defined as: The understanding of the concepts behind computing equipment, network connectivity, and application software; The skills to responsibly use appropriate technology to access, synthesize, evaluate, communicate, and create information to solve problems and improve learning in all subject areas; and The ability to acquire new knowledge for on-going and lifelong learning in the 21st century global workplace. Ethical Issues Technology literate students should be able to 1) demonstrate understanding of concepts underlying hardware, software, networking connectivity and in use of computers and applications, 2); demonstrate understanding of ethics and safety issues in using electronic media and responsible use of technology, and, 3) use technology for communication, research and collaboration and problem-solving. With proficient technology skills, students should be able to locate, collect, synthesize, and evaluate information from a variety of digital sources, and to use telecommunications and other media to interact or collaborate with peers, experts, and other audiences. With the changing social landscape that naturally follows changes in technology comes a new wave of ethical issues. These issues must be addressed and resolved for computers, technology and the Internet to have a positive influence in society. Internet privacy, electronic communication and computer crimes add a new layer of ethical issues that plague those who use computers and technology on a daily basis. By identifying the main societal issues in computer usage, you can take a stand for electronic ethics. EXAMPLES OF ETHICAL ISSUES Information and Privacy The Internet is a veritable smorgasbord of personal information. If you need someone's phone number, you look it up. If you need to learn more about a company, you visit the website. If you want to find an old friend, you use social networking. The sheer amount of personal information make it easy to breach the boundary between using the Internet for learning and information and using the Internet to invade another's privacy. You can protect yourself by being vague about yourself online and ensuring your identity is ambiguous and nonspecific. Copyright and Privacy Certain items of media, such as public domain books, movies and music, are available for all to enjoy and even download. Items of media which are copyrighted are not in the public domain and downloading and distributing them is illegal. Unfortunately, online piracy is widespread and notoriously difficult to prosecute, so it often goes without consequence. The same could be said for plagiarism, which is made easier to do and harder to track with the number of resources online. Computer Crime The availability of information that can be accessed with a computer paired with a lax attitude toward security means credit card numbers and identities are constantly at risk. Entering your credit card on a seemingly innocuous website may seem like an everyday activity, but that site could be a clever scam designed to fraud you out of your hard-earned money. While the amount and extent of computer crime is frightening, it's a reality and therefore it's necessary for consumers to protect themselves by purchasing from trusted retailers or using third-party payment services to protect their money. Communication Issues Computers have completely altered the way humans interact with each other. With the invention of electronic mail, online messaging and social networking sites, face-to-face conversation seems to be a dying art. Because the communication landscape has changed over time, so have the challenges and ethics that accompany proper communication, such as discussing certain issues via email, exchanging personal information without the proper security and forming relationships online. References FTC: Botnets and Hackers and Spam (Oh, My!) Bowling Green State University: Computer Ethics Stanford University: Computer and Information Ethics